Chapter 2
The fishes swam in circles, slowly brushing past each other.
They were as large as Casey himself, and their glows were bright enough to throw moving shadows onto the cave's walls. The cistern's depth, and its darkness, made it hard to see past them, and their movements. Casey took in a breath.
"This is so awesome. Can I come tomorrow and put up some cameras?"
"Yeah, but you've got to deal with the stuff for work first, Case." His dad smiled.
"He brought everything we need," Joshua said. "I'll go get the rest of the stuff from the truck."
"Henry brought in a ladder earlier, so you don't have to lift in one of those." John pointed to a stone column. "It's behind there."
As Casey passed him by, he felt a pat on his shoulder.
He did his work with accuracy and speed not befitting his age. He, and Joshua, had the place all set up in under an hour.
They had brought solar panels, along with batteries, and an inverter to run the elven site off of.
Outside they set up the batteries in a mobile plastic shed. They'd be on this site for a while. Casey expected months.
He cleaned his hands on a rag, watching as the grease and dirt simply smeared along his skin. He sighed, knowing he'd have to go home dirty again tonight.
Joshua and his dad stood together in the parking lot. He could hear them arguing, and sighed.
Joshua said, "I'm having a bad feeling about this." He asked, "Since when do we need close ties to Cordonne?"
"Well, I've heard some things recently, Josh. Some people I respect think that it might be needed. But for me, I think they're acting a little too early. I think it'll unsettle a lot of people."
Joshua usually had an interest in anything on social media. Casey had to admit he usually knew what he was talking about—unless it was about women. He chuckled quietly.
Casey threw the rag in the back of the truck and placed his briefcases in the back seat.
"Kid." Joshua looked to him for backup. "What do you think?"
"About us and Aelteia joining the SCC? It'll do us good. And the elves could use some ties too. They rely too much on magic."
Joshua spoke. "Bimini doesn't need the coalition, though. We're self-sustaining. Okay, sometimes we might need some help from the elves, for certain things, but we don't need anyone else."
John walked off for a moment and came back.
"Case, can you drop Josh off for me? The cars are getting serviced tomorrow."
His dad jumped into his car and drove off. He did that a lot, leaving without saying where he was going.
It was six by the time he and Josh had finally left. The clouds had cleared up. The ride to Joshua's home was smooth now, because the quarry rocks had all been pressed flat by Henry.
Joshua lived about four miles away from Casey's district. Old Providence was a mixture of trees and homes in the west, and purely urban in Casey's eastern area. To the south was a business district, and everything there was at least three stories in height; and it all sat near the coast.
They passed by less, and less trees, and started to pass by porch lights instead. Speed bumps, and stop signs increased, and they came to Joshua's house.
He said goodbye before leaving quietly. On the ride over; he'd been smiling and mumbling. The way he was texting gave Casey some ideas.
Casey drove towards his neighborhood. He felt a little hungry, but didn't stop for any food.
He really just needed some rest more than anything right now.
He finally pulled into the driveway. His home, his father's home, was a two-story building. Four bedrooms, and two baths.
It was a lot for two people.
He passed through the stained glass doors, and immediately, he made his way to a shower. Wanting the experience gone from his skin.
He heard his father come in much later.
Casey found sleep harder to grasp recently. This period would have been when he would to talk his ex. Now… it was just empty.
Another hour of discomfort, and he finally fell asleep.
Part2
Casey woke up and the sun was barely on the front of the home. Right now felt so much better than last night. And even last night had been an improvement on letting go.
When he wasn't too exhausted, he'd train himself and today was one of those days.
Running his fingers through his low cut, Casey sat up for a bit. He prayed, and grabbed his practice sword. He made his way to the backyard.
Casey wore a thin black t-shirt, and white sweatpants. As he entered the backyard, he stood still and allowed his eyes to adjust to the flimsy light. He then placed his wooden sword against the glass back door, and walked onto the lawn.
The light outside was morning purple. Because it hadn't warmed the wind, it felt cold out too.
Casey traced everything to be sure of his privacy.
A brown fence surrounded the home. A bed of flowers were inside of it. And before those was a well-kept lawn, which filled the rest of the space to their pool.
The pool was in the shape of a teardrop; there were white stones all around its two foot white rim.
Casey scrunched up his nose. Since he was young, he had always hated the smell of chlorine. He huffed out some air.
Casey focused and closed his eyes. Sorcery worked by feeling the source of an element through the nodes in the body. Heat from light from the sun could be collected, that heat could be gathered as mana, and projected from a specific node.
A sorcerer's body could feel some mana, not as much as a node, not as accurately. Because of this, Casey strengthened himself with composite mana. A mixture that was just basic, healthy stuff.
His upper body moved unnaturally fast. The air being torn apart as he twisted his blows. His guard stayed tight. Wind whistled loudly. Some of it's pitches would hurt if they were heard.
His legs bounced back before stepping in. He lowered himself to land a liver blow. Slid his left foot to the left to throw a sharp unchambered uppercut.
He threw sets of punch combinations, dodges, and beautiful parries. The unarmed movements lasted fifteen minutes, exactly.
The sword swings were patient, and watchful. He used a single-handed sword. This blade would leave blurs in the air. They lingered. Then you would see them collapse. He moved faster. Leaving fourteen blurs in a few seconds.
As they collapsed a heavy messy wind swept through all sides of the backyard.
His dad tapped on the back glass and mouthed, nice. Smiling and holding both thumbs up.
Casey gave a laugh.
While working out just now he had made a breakthrough. He tightened his fist and held a primal shout. The smile never left his face.